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Schools

Albany Students Improve Slightly on STAR Tests

Results from the state's STAR tests came in this week and showed Albany students did only slightly better than last year. But Albany scores are still among the best in the county.

Albany's public school students did slightly better this year on the California STAR tests than they did in 2009 based on results released Monday from tests administered in the spring. Across the grades, 75 percent of students scored "proficient" or "advanced" in math and English Language Arts.

But, continuing a pattern from the past, Albany test scores indicate there's an "achievement gap" between high achieving and low achieving students and that the gap widens as kids get older. By the time they are in high school, students include a large contingent of high achieving students and a sizable contingent of low achieving students, according to the scores.

For instance, among eighth graders taking Algebra 1 at Albany Middle School, 99 percent scored proficient or advanced in the STAR Algebra 1 test last spring. But this only accounts for about half the grade level, as the rest take a pre-algebra or general math class. Only 58 percent of eighth graders taking the STAR General Mathematics tests scored proficient or advanced.

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In English Language Arts, 46 percent of last year's 10th graders scored "Advanced" as did 45 percent of 11th graders, meaning they performed well above grade level expectations on the test. 

But 20 percent of 11th graders scored "below basic" or "far below basic" in English Language Arts, which indicates they have not learned what juniors in high school are expected to have mastered in the subject area.

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The gap actually shrunk between 2008-09 and 2009-10, according to the scores, by a couple percentage points in most grades.

Administrators say STAR tests are far from a perfect measure of student achievement. They are just one ingredient.

"It's a multiple choice assessment, so it does not adequately or accurately measure things that we care about in this school," said Albany High School Principal Ted Barone.

"It's a test that's going to die in the next couple years," because a redesign of state assessment tests is already in the works, he said. The redesign will focus more on critical thinking and "problem solving kinds of skills."

But he added that the information from the STAR data is "not without use" in figuring out if and how students are learning.

An achievement gap based on socio-economic differences among students has been something administrators, the Albany Board of Education and teachers have worried about and tried to address for years, both in Albany and many other cities.

There have been several efforts at the high school to try to address the gap. In drafting "Expected School wide Learning Results" and in designing curriculum and guidance counseling programs, high school staff members have begun several intervention programs to motivate under-achieving kids. The high school also has added new curricula to try to engage more students.

A smaller percentage of 10th and 11th graders scored "below basic" or "far below basic" on this year's tests than last year.

Ronald Rosenbaum, president of the Albany school board said, "I'm pleased to see that we've made some modest progress in the most critical area...moving students from far below basic and below basic to basic, proficient and advanced."

Rosenbaum, former principal of Albany High, added, "I've yet to examine the socioeconomic breakdown to see how the scores reflect our efforts to close the achievement gap."

But, like Barone, he views the STAR tests as a very limited measure of student achievement.

"I see test scores as only one of many measures of academic success in the Albany Unified School District," Rosenbaum said.

Superintendent Marla Stephenson is out of town and was not reachable for comment.

The state's goal for the STAR - or Standardized Testing and Reporting system test – is that all students reach the proficient level, which means they understand and master the material of their grade level.

In Albany, of those taking the English Language Arts test last spring, 75 percent of second and third graders, 83 percent of fourth graders and 81 percent of sixth graders scored proficient or advanced, as did 74 percent of eighth grade students, 69 percent of 10th graders and 62 percent of 11th graders.

Albany students scored higher on average than students in almost all other Alameda County districts. In math, Albany scores were third highest among 19 school districts, following just behind Piedmont and Sunol Glen. Albany scored fourth highest in English Language Arts, behind those two districts as well as Pleasanton. 

However, Albany scores were below scores of students from Orinda, Lafayette and several eastern Contra County school districts, as well as those of dozens of other school districts.

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